Women & Makeup

Survey: How Much Makeup Do You Find Attractive On A Woman?

Update: After a day of polling, the results are in and it appears that AskMen readers' opinions line up with this study's findings. Given the choice of "no makeup, light makeup and full makeup," 80% of you said you liked "light makeup" best on women. And as for the makeup choices of your wives and girlfriends? Most of you were quite content with your lady's style as the overwhelming majority of you said you wouldn't want your S.O. to wear less or more makeup than she already does.

When it comes to attraction and the opposite sex, men and women are often on vastly different pages about what they find attractive.

However, a new study found that when it comes to makeup, men and women are generally on the same page about what amount is the right amount — although they didn't think they would be.

The study involved 44 white women in their early 20s and a panel of 44 Bangor University students made up of men and women as judges. The researchers took photos of the 44 models in their natural state with no makeup and then asked them to apply makeup as if they were going out for a night on the town. Then, the researchers took the two photos and created a gradient of 21 faces from fresh-faced to fully made-up.

According to The Atlantic, the results were that "people thought the models looked best when they were wearing just 60 percent as much makeup as they had actually applied. But they thought women would want the models to be wearing 75 percent as much, and that men would want 80 percent. (Interestingly, the men thought other men wanted the women to be wearing more makeup, even when they themselves didn’t. As if to say, “Oh, I’m the progressive one around here. It’s those other guys you have to watch out for.”)"

This last point is a funny one because I think some men pride themselves in saying that they don't like makeup on a woman, however, if their wife or girlfriend wasn't wearing the makeup she usually wears, they would most likely subconsciously notice a difference — although they might not be able to identify exactly which element was missing. The reaction women often get from the men in their life when they're not wearing their usual mascara or concealer is something like "you look tired" or "are you sick?"

As the study found, it appears that there is a happy medium between the #NoMakeupSelfie and a painted-on face that both genders agree on.

What do you think? We put together a few survey questions below on the topic of women and makeup: